The Power of Dialogue (POD) is a highly interactive workshop for practitioners, leaders, and others interested in transforming conflicted conversations. Participants will build upon and expand their facilitation skills to create conversations that foster mutual understanding between groups and individuals divided by deep differences.

Questions and the way they are asked have the potential to significantly change your interactions, influencing how you view the interactions, the stories you tell about them, and how you approach future interactions. In this workshop, you'll explore the power of questions, which can invite or inhibit understanding and connections between the asked and the asker.

Anyone who leads meetings can be thrown off balance when difficult moments arise. The difficulty might be an unexpected tense moment among group members, or it may come in the form of a challenge to your legitimacy. In either case, you can learn to prevent an intense “deer in the headlight” moment—and instead act calmly and intentionally.

In today’s world, leading effective public meetings has become increasingly difficult. Our highly polarized society contributes to a “win-lose” mentality, and tight economic times heighten the stakes when people come together to tackle public policy issues. Lack of confidentiality, the role of the media, and evolving technology further complicate the process. Designing and facilitating effective public meetings requires coolness, clarity, courage and skill.

Most of us have spent thousands of hours in meetings, as both leaders and participants. Thousands. Have those been hours well spent?

When administered poorly, meetings can be frustrating, waste valuable time and energy, and host unconstructive conversations. When designed with purpose, meetings have the power to connect people in new ways, as well as invite more focus, creativity and collaboration.

Effective preparation helps participants engage more deeply with others on subjects about which they feel passionately (and differently). Through preparation, participants can learn to avoid binary, “either-or” frameworks, re-center their thinking and feeling, reflect more deeply on the origin of their own beliefs, and entertain curiosity about the beliefs of others.

The Reflective Structured Dialogue (RSD) approach began 25 years ago as a way to promote connection and curiosity between people who saw the other side as the “enemy.” Since that time, Public Conversations has learned how this intentional communication process can be applied to help individuals, organizations and communities to enhance resilience, build trust and help people learn to have constructive conversations with those they otherwise “wouldn’t be caught dead with.” The theory and pract

Most meetings are so crammed full of agenda items, reports, and outside interruptions that little if any time is left to reflect on our work, hopes and deepest purposes. Spaces to reflect can sometimes feel wasteful – a luxury that most people just cannot afford. A growing body of evidence tells us otherwise. In situations of conflict, reflection interrupts reactive patterns and makes space for people to listen in a new way.

Do you have a relationship that feels stuck? Wish you knew how to make a dreaded conversation feel hopeful? Want to understand how to help loved ones who are in conflict take a step back and then a step forward?